Economics of Social Issues 20th Edition by Ansel Sharp, Charles Register , Paul Grimes

Exercise 16

Often it is blithely stated that "a country should pull itself up by its own bootstraps." From the standpoint of shifting the production possibilities curve outward, improving educational systems is an example of this. Referring to the data for LDCs in Table 1.3, discuss the practical problems of such a recommendation for a very poor country.
TABLE 1.3
Per Capita Real GDP and Population, Actual and Growth Rates, Population Density, Annual Growth Rate of Real GDP, and Life Expectancy in Selected Countries
Source: World Bank, World Development Indicators Online, available at https://publications.worldbank.org/commerce.
* In constant (2009) U.S. dollars.